The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 12

ByStu Schreiberg Jimmy Stewart, going on 80, is going on safaris, driving himself to the omce, planning to do New Year in style. At least Tfi-, Ljy Kb cmum A' mi els, poking around in Gloria's backyard vegetable garden, tussling with his two golden retriev JTI i cluding Harvey, Rear Window, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Glenn Miller Story) and to receive an honorary Oscar in 1985 for "50 years of distinguished work." Nominated five times for best-actor Oscar, he won tor I he Philadelphia Story in 1940. "That night Dad called and said, 'The radio said you got some kind of prize. Whatever it is, send it back to the store (the family hardware store in Indiana, Pa.) and I'll put it in the The Oscar stayed in that window for 20 years, although for a while, my sister said, he moved it inside and had it under a cheese bell.

"Dad never quite understood the picture business. Some things are hard to explain." Take, for example, Stewart's videocassette recorder and laser disc player, atop a color TV in need of a picture tube. "I can't figure these gadgets out Don't know how to Stewart says, moseying into his much- Force Reserve in 1 968 as a brigadier general. He's one of only two reserve officers ever to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross with two Oak Leaf Clusters. In May 1985, Stewart received the Medal of Freedom, the highest honor the USA can bestow on a civilian.

"While my husband is not conscious of what he has accomplished," says Gloria, popping into the den in jeans and a red MGM sweatshirt, "he is conscious of the fact that we rarely are able to spend a quiet night at home." Just ask them to recall the last evening they spent in a nn i 'taw. imitated pause before pouncing on the punch line: "I'm not sure about 'play' either." But he is a sureshot with the camera that Gloria, his wife of 38 years, gave him last Christmas to use on their frequent sa faris to Kenya and Tanzania. On this year's safari, he snapped 350 photos while bouncing over "one pothole after another" for 3,000 miles. His favorite photo subjects: lions and rhinos. "You're confident that your guide knows how close is too close," he says.

"But once there was this rhino who charged us and, well, we were lucky. It stopped (running) for some reason I didn't "Five years ago, we had a great safari. We took the twins (daughters Judy and Kelly, now 36) and their husbands with us at Christmastime. One night, I came back to the camp to find Kelly wearing this Santa Claus suit and beard, a mixture of cotton and shaving cream. She was a pretty good-looking Santa." That memorable performance neighborhood movie theater "I think it was Out of Africa, Stewart says hesitantly.

"It was The Good Earth" playing theaters 50 years ago says Gloria with mock certainty. If the right new script came along, Stewart would climb back up on the screen again. His last, forgettable movie: The Late Christopher Bean in 1985. "I read a few scripts a week but they're all crotchety grandfather roles. I've never been a crotchety grandfather, so why start now?" He lists Dustin Hoffman and Richard Dreyfuss among his favorite actors today.

"Hoffman is as good as anyone I've ever seen" and has a quality Stewart envies: no stage fright "There is no cure. Once you get it, it stays with you for life. I always got so mad at Hank" his best friend and onetime roommate, Henry Fonda. "Right before he'd go on, he'd have an enormous steak dinner. After the performance, he'd go out and have more food and a couple of drinks.

I was barely able to digest a cracker." Hollywood anecdotes remind us that a Jimmy Stewart autobiography is long overdue. "I've thought about it but I'm a terrible letter writer," he says. "I remember I started a diary when I entered the war. Four-and-a-half years later, the diary had two pages filled. I think you may have to wait awhile for the James Stewart story." For now, Stewart has his trav he 11 be home aside, none of the kids neither their twin girls nor Gloria's two boys from her first marriage ever expressed interest in entering Stewart's business.

"Judy once failed a college class in acting," Stewart laughs. "She said it was the dullest thing she'd ever been in." Today, Judy and her husband, San Francisco banker Steven Merrill, have two sons and live in the Bay area. Kelly is a zoologist, as is her husband, Dr. Alexander Har-court They live in Londoa Gloria's older son, 1st Lt Ronald W. McLean, was kiUed in action in Vietnam in 1969, at age 24.

The Stewarts look up his name on the Vietnam Memorial's black wall each time they're in Washington, DC Michael McLean, 41, has two sons with wife Barbara and is an investment banker in Phoenix. Stewart thinks his four grandsons ages 3 to 1 5 "have a pretty good idea of what I do for a living. They've made faces at some of my movies. I'm not sure if that is a good or bad sign." A better barometer 400 fan letters a week delivered to his Beverly Hills office. Each morning, millionaire Stewart drives his 1979 Volvo (which replaced an old Pinto) to "sign all the autographs myself.

People aren't customers; they're partners. I have a responsibility." Sometimes that responsibility requires him to return to the office after lunch at home. "The jump in the water and an angel named Clarence who hasn't got his wings yet comes to help you. But Clarence can't swim so you jump in and get him out This doesn't sound very good, does it? "I said, 'Frank, if you want to do a picture about an angel that hasn't won his wings and me going to kill myself, well, Frank, I'm your It's a Wonderful Life has grown into The Great American Christmas Movie, firmly on ior umstmas witn family and friends. It's no wonder JKJUir DO THE whole thing," Jimmy Stewart confides from the depths of his den.

"Gloria puts the trinkets on the tree. I'm assigned the job of putting the lights on the house. We hang the stockings together." And, like millions of others in the USA, Stewart will gather with friends and familv for Christmas dinner at home and maybe catch a broadcast of his heartwarming 1947 movie It's a Wonderful Life. "It's a pretty good film," he confirms, recalling that he saw it last Christmas. "But only recently have I been able to relax and enjoy the story.

All through my career in the movies, I hated to watch myself, hated to attend sneak previews or rushes. I would just sit there and think, 'Why did I hesitate? Why is my mouth You'd leave the room convinced that your performance was absolutely awful." Absolutely not Our greatest living actor is the darling of Hollywood, a real-life war hero, a safari adventurer, an aw-shucks example of the American Dream. And now, Stewart is celebrating his favorite time of the year and looking forward to turning 80 in '88. Early critics told the young Princeton architecture grad that he "talked too slow" and was "too skinny." But he went on to star in more than 80 films (in Cover photo by Craig Molenhouse 'W IV. ri mail can take several hours.

I don't want to get too far behind. I still get quite a few autograph requests, you know." And quite a few invitations. The ever-modest, perpetually gracious Stewart is treated like royalty, the most desired guest for any A-list party in Hollywood or anywhere else. His 1988 social calendar begins by welcoming the New Year with Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Barbara and Frank Sinatra and other stellar couples at the Palm Springs, home of publisher Walter Annenberg. His old friend Reagan has said: "We think of the Stewart character as open, kind and honest, just like the boy next door.

Well, Nancy and I and his friends can tell you that's not just some screen character that's the real Jimmy Stewart" That true-blue image, untouched by scandal during six decades of fame, comes in handy as Republican Stewart is helping raise millions for Reagan's presidential library. After New Year's, an endless list of commitments will keep him flying across the USA: Hollywood award shows. Animal conservation conferences. Air Force Association meetings. Indeed, Stewart the war hero has won almost as many honors as Stewart the actor.

As a B-24 pilot and squadron commander in World War JJ, he flew 20 bombing missions over Germany and retired from the Air flopped at first "the Top 10 of all time" lists, airing nonstop on TV this week and selling at video stores for as little as $9.95. And it's a lifesav-en Former presidential aide Robert McFarlane said It's a Wonderful Life helped pull him back from suicidal depression. But 40 years ago, It's a Wonderful Life was a deep disappointment The movie came out with a splash and promptly lost $525,000. Bad box-office contributed to the ruin of its pro-duction company, Liberty ers (Mara and Baron, also called "the and his swimming regimen. "I do a half-hour swim ana stretching exercises in the water every day.

Keeps me in pretty good shape." Actually, he seems in very good shape behind his reading glasses: He's lean as a cowpoke at 6-foot-3'2, with a strong gait and an undeniable wit "I'm co-hosting the Jimmy Stewart Relay Marathon to benefit St John's Hospital (in Santa Monica) in March. They'll let me handle the starter gun they haven't invited me to attempt the 26 miles, though." Stewart is bound to receive stacks of invitations to help him celebrate his milestone 80th birthday, May 20, 1988. Which will he accept? "I'll leave it to Gloria," he says with a contented twinkle. Tra sure she'll come up with something for us to do." It's a Wonderful Life' is probably my favorite. It did show my values and feelings about things.

Jimmy Stewart It's a wonderful movie, too, though it ffRw- And magjc began. As TV stations learned they could show it for free, a nostalgia-prone generation drenched itself in smalltown sentiment Every year, the movie grows more popular. In 1986, 80,000 videocassette copies were sold by Hal Roach Studios, just one of more than 30 distributors. In 1987, the company sold more than 150,000. And that's just for the colorized version.

Purists like Jimmy Stewart who prefer It's a Wonderful Life in glorious can simply turn down the color knob to see the angel win his wings again. Films, in which Stewart and Ca-pra were financial partners. And though it received five Oscar nominations, including best picture, best director and best actor, it was shut out by The Best Years of Our Lives. "It didn't do well at all," Stewart says. "I don't think it was the type of story people wanted right after the war.

They wanted a war-related story or a pure slapstick, Jerry Lewis-type of comedy. Our movie just got lost" So lost that no one bothered to renew the copyright In 1973, It's a Wonderful Life fell into the public domain. Jimmy Stewart was flying kites with his buddy, the late Henry Fonda, another unemployed actor back from World War II, when director Frank Ca-pra called with a movie idea. "He started, 'You're this guy and you think you failed and you're in this small town that you didn't want to stay in and you decide to commit suicide. You're on a bridge ready to HAPPY HOLIDAYS: Stewart, Donna Reed and the Wonderful family, 1947 jjklj ill USA WEEKENDDEC.

18-20, 1987 USA WEEKENDDEC. 18-20, 1987.